2020-08-19: News Headlines

Dilip Hiro (2020-08-19). Trump Is Losing the Tech War Against China. thenation.com Trump Is Losing the Tech War Against China…

yenisafak (2020-08-19). Brent oil price down with halt in US-China trade talks. yenisafak.com Oil prices eased on Wednesday after stagnant US economic stimulus talks, and with US President Donald Trump postponing US-China trade talks.International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $45.05 per barrel at 0614GMT for a 0.9% decrease after closing Tuesday at $45.46 a barrel.American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $42.56 per barrel at the same time, down 1.3% after ending the previous session at $43.12 a barrel.Trump on Tuesday said he postponed trade negotiations with China, commenting that he does not want to talk to China "right now."Scheduled talks between representatives from the US and China…

WSWS (2020-08-18). Responding to US provocations, Chinese officials appeal for "peaceful coexistence" wsws.org Chinese Foreign Minister Wang warned that relations between the US and Beijing were facing "the gravest challenge since the establishment of diplomatic ties" in the 1970s."

_____ (2020-08-18). Jimmy Lai Arrested, And Long Live Hong Kong. popularresistance.org The 71-year-old Lai, originally from Mainland China, owns a right-wing tabloid Apple Daily. He is known for dutifully echoing media salvos that are being fired by Western governments and media outlets, salvos against Beijing, and SAR administration, which in turn gained him, in the West, of course, various flattering and unreal titles such as 'an outspoken pro-democracy figure in Hong Kong who regularly criticizes China's authoritarian rule' (CBS News). Lies, of course. Obvious lies.

_____ (2020-08-18). 'What Happens If Julian Assange Dies In A British Prison?'. popularresistance.org For Assange however, justice delayed is not only justice denied. With global attention shifting from Wuhan to Washington, from Minneapolis to Lebanon, the father of two young children has spent another five months in incarceration without access to lawyers or family visitations. It follows what is approaching ten years of what the United Nations has repeatedly labeled arbitrary detention — the British government has so far failed to respond to three separate U.N. reports and correspondences on the matter. | Serena Tinari, a Switzerland-based investigative journalist, condemned Britain's handling of the case…

Anand Naidoo (2020-08-18). The Heat: U.S.-China Trade. america.cgtn.com Despite escalating diplomatic and political tensions between the United States and China, both sides remain committed to a trade deal. At the beginning of 2020 the U.S. and China signed Phase One of a bilateral trade agreement. It signaled a truce in their bruising dispute …

RT (2020-08-18). More than 100,000 evacuated as southwestern China stricken by worst floods in decades (VIDEO). rt.com Authorities in China's southwestern Sichuan province have raised the flood emergency alert to the highest level for the first time on record as local rivers broke their banks and flooded the cities, sparking massive evacuations. | Continuous rainfall has caused the worst flooding in Sichuan in some 70 years. More than two dozen of the region's major rivers overran their banks with muddy swelling waters flooding urban areas. The streets of Leshan — a major provincial city located at the confluence of two rivers — have been almost entirely submerged by water. | Footage published by the Ruptly video…

RT (2020-08-18). Australian police raid fishing boat and find 1 TON of cocaine, worth up to $180 MILLION. rt.com Australian law enforcement has seized around a ton of cocaine after dramatically raiding a moving vessel which had received the major transfer of drugs from another boat, about 200 nautical miles off the coast of Newcastle. | Saturday's raid followed an Australian border force investigation, which began last week after authorities spotted a ship moving in an unusual trajectory from the coast of China. A fishing vessel named the Coralynne approached the boat from China and allegedly performed an "at-sea transfer of illicit drugs bound for Australia," New South Wales Police reports. Police posted a video of the…

Eds. (2020-08-18). Oil spill threatens disaster for Mauritius. mronline.org The Japanese-owned (Mitsui-operated) MV Wakashio was en route to Brazil from China to fetch iron ore from a port owned by the notorious mining company Vale. Here the ship is seen having run aground near Blue Bay, one of the area's most pristine sites for coral, already threatened by bleaching due to the climate crisis. …

Stephen Lendman (2020-08-18). Trump Gives Chinese Parent Company 90 Days to Divest from TikTok. globalresearch.ca US cold war on China risks turning hot if bipartisan hardliners in Washington push things too far. | Their hostile actions are all about wanting China's development, growth, and prominence on the world stage undermined. | Since Trump took office, scores of …

teleSUR (2020-08-18). China Demands US To Cancel Measures Against TikTok. telesurenglish.net China's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian rejected the announcement to ban TikTok and WeChat in the United States made by President Donald Trump's administration. | RELATED: | He said that TikTok follows the U.S. regulations, its managers are U.S. citizens, and its servers are outside of China. | Zhao also affirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has confirmed that China…

Larry Wilkerson (2020-08-18). The Danger of War With China is Real and Insane. zcomm.org China and the U.S. must work together to solve the climate crisis, but the power of the militaries and national security states on both sides is making that impossible…

teleSUR (2020-08-17). China Announces Its First COVID-19 Vaccine Patent. telesurenglish.net China's National Intellectual Property Administration Monday granted the first patent to a COVID-19 vaccine developed in the Asian nation. | RELATED: | The Ad5-nCoV vaccine was co-developed by CanSino Biologics, the Beijing Biotechnology Institute, and a People's Liberation Army (PLA) team. | During the next year, the vaccine will be for the military forces' exclusive use. However, the military high command will be responsible for autho…

WSWS (2020-08-17). US-backed opposition in Solomon Islands opposes ties to Beijing. wsws.org A provincial administration in Malaita insists that it has the right to maintain its own relations with Taiwan and refuses to recognise Beijing.

Xinhua (2020-08-17). Xi's article on Marxist political economy in contemporary China to be published. mronline.org An article by President Xi Jinping on opening new horizons of the Marxist political economy in contemporary China will be published Sunday.

Finian Cunningham (2020-08-17). US Snapback From Humiliation. thealtworld.com American President Donald Trump has darkly warned of something big this week, vowing to apply "snapback" international sanctions on Iran. It would be a drastic move and likely to further isolate Washington in the eyes of the world. | But the real snapback is Washington's fury after the United States was subjected to a humiliating diplomatic defeat at the UN security council last week. | A proposal by the US for the United Nations to extend an arms embargo on Iran was decisively rejected by the security council comprised of five permanent members and 11 non-permanent members. Russia and China voted against the…

yenisafak (2020-08-17). US imposes further sanctions on China's Huawei. yenisafak.com US President Donald Trump's administration on Monday expanded restrictions on Chinese telecom company Huawei over the company's alleged ties with the Chinese Communist Party.Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business that Huawei's access to semiconductor chips is banned, and new limitations will further prevent it from getting around the bar."On May 20, we issued an order that prevented American technology from being used in Huawei-designed chips. That led them to do some evasive measures. They were going through third parties," Ross said. "The new rule makes it clear that any use of American software or Am…

sputniknews (2020-08-16). Israel Closer to US 'Clean Network' by Abandoning Chinese 5G Tech, Report Claims. sputniknews.com Reports suggesting that the Trump administration is urging Tel Aviv to block China from the development of 5G infrastructure in Israel emerged in late May, falling in line with Washington's confrontation with Chinese tech giant Huawei over its alleged connections with Beijing intelligence.

yenisafak (2020-08-16). China's local COVID-19 cases fall as Xinjiang cluster recedes. yenisafak.com China's new locally transmitted cases of the novel coronavirus fell to a one-month low as a cluster in the western region of Xinjiang receded, data released by the country's health authority showed on Sunday.The number of locally transmitted cases in China dropped to four on Aug. 15, all of which were in Xinjiang, the National Health Commission said in a statement. That compares with eight cases nationwide a day earlier and is the lowest since July 16.No new locally transmitted cases were recorded on Aug. 15 in the city of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province after provincial authorities there reported fresh i…

teleSUR (2020-08-16). US: Trump Plans to Ban Alibaba, China's e-Commerce Giant. telesurenglish.net U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday admitted he is considering banning from the U.S the activity of Alibaba, China's Internet e-commerce company. | RELATED: | "Besides TikTok, we are planning to ban the activities of other Chinese companies in the U.S., including Alibaba," Trump said at a press conference. | Trump previously banned the short video application TikTok, owned by ByteDance, and Tencent's WeChat messaging s…

_____ (2020-08-16). Belarus: Imperialists Run The Same Tired Old Script. popularresistance.org The Western establishment narrative managers always follow the same patterns. Just like they fixated on Hong Kong protests, while ignoring those in US-aligned France or Israel, now they're cheering on protests in Belarus. | Imperialist pundit and Obama administration Cold Warrior Michael McFaul recently tweeted the following: | "Belarusians, inside and outside of the country, have reached out to me this week to ask why the West is so indifferent to their courageous fight for democracy. I can't explain. Can you?" | I am not highlighting this tweet because it is remarkable…

Hasan Bayram, Nurdan Kà∂ktàºrk, Osman Elbek, Oƒüuz Kƒ±lƒ±nàß, Abdullah Sayƒ±ner, Elif Daƒülƒ±, Turkish Thoracic Society (2020-08-15). [Correspondence] Interference in scientific research on COVID-19 in Turkey. thelancet.com Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), as it was later named, was first identified in Wuhan, China, on Jan 7, 2020.1 Over the following months, the virus rapidly spread throughout the world. The disease, COVID-19, was characterised as a pandemic by WHO on March 11, 2020. On the same day, the Turkish Ministry of Health reported the first case in Turkey.2 According to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data platform, which analyses the genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2, the disease reached Turkey mainly through Iran, with whom Turkey has strong commercial and touristic ties, and…

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-08-15). COVID-19 Coronavirus "Fake" Pandemic: Timeline and Analysis. globalresearch.ca On January 30, a far-reaching decision was taken by the WHO without the support of expert opinion at a time when the coronavirus outbreak was limited to Mainland China. 150 confirmed cases outside China, when the decision was taken, 6 in the US, 3 in Canada, 2 in the UK, etc. In early March, 430 cases in the US.

Lin Liangduo (2020-08-15). China's Message to Donald: What Do You Want from Us? globalresearch.ca Translated from Chinese for Global Research; first published in January 2020. | Enough is enough. Enough hypocrisy for this one world. | What do you want from us, anyway? What Do You Really Want from Us? | When we were the sick man …